1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



427 



queen. As the bees began to cluster, tlieir 

 weight, continually increasing, would over- 

 balance the pole and cause it to dump the 

 cluster into a hive just beneath. A pistol was 

 attached to the rigging, so that, whenever a 

 pole took a " dump," the pistol would go oflF, 

 and inform the owner, who would close the 

 hive up, take it away, and put another one in 

 its place. The theory was all right, but the 

 practice was bad; at least, I do not remember 

 that it ever worked. Mr. Aldrich's idea, if it 

 works free enough and easy enough, I am sure 

 would deposit the swarm in hive No. 2. But 

 there is just one serious objection to it : It 

 would take a big lot of machinery for hiving 

 swarms in a whole apiary that are expected to 

 come out. As a novelty and as a curiosity it 

 can, however, be tried with one colony. 



As to bee-keeping in California, the prices 

 have gone down so very low that I do not 

 suppose the business is as profitable as it once 

 was. Still, there are quite a number of prom- 

 inent bee-keepers who are, I believe, making 

 a fairly good thing of it. — Ed.] 



THE ONTARIO COUNTY BEE-KEEPERS' CON- 

 VENTION. 



History of the Honey-bee ; Honey, and its Uses in 

 Early Times; an Interesting Article. 



BY F. GREINER. 



on the "History of the 

 before the convention, I 



From an essay 

 Honey-bee," read 

 take the following : 



It is now an undisputed fact that bees were 

 in existence long before man. Petrified (or 

 fossil) bees, Apis adcunifica, have been found 

 in numerous instances, here in a stone-quarry, 

 there in the amber deposits, showing that bees 

 are not a late production of nature. We have 

 also evidence that, in prehistoric times, among 

 a people that must have been in existence 

 then (judging from the remains of their work, 

 tools, etc., found, honey - strainers among 

 other things), bee keeping was a branch of 

 their industry. What kind of bees these 

 people kept has, however, not been determin- 

 ed. The writers of later ages, and of times 

 long past, have not made quite the distinctions 

 between different races that we do to-day, 

 although Virgil, Aristotle, and others mention 

 bees of a dark and of a light or yellow color. 

 It seems to have been the principal aim of the 

 ancient Germans, and, in fact, of the people 

 in general, inhabiting North Europe, to pro- 

 duce honey for the purpose of converting it 

 into a drink, evidently intoxicating. This 

 tendency may be followed, like a red stripe in 

 a carpet, from remote times. In the German 

 mythology this drink, met, is mentioned a 

 thousand times in the poetry of that time, 

 although nothing is said about bees and bee- 

 keeping. 



The German bee is common all over the 

 northern part of Europe. It is of a dark 

 brown or nearly black color. This bee is not 

 alike all over the territory named. Evolution 

 has brought about slight changes according 

 to existing environments, and so we find a 



number of different strains. First, the com- 

 mon brown bee, the same as we have here, 

 the bee that was imported into America by the 

 immigrants. In the heath sections of Ger- 

 many we find the heath bee, resembling the 

 first named exactly in outward appearance, 

 but differing from it in their great disposition 

 to swarm. It may truly be called a swarming 

 bee. Vogel claims the heath bee, when 

 brought into different surroundings, will 

 acclimate itself in a few years and lose this 

 swarming tendency. 



In the mountains of Carniola we find a gray 

 bee with a possibly slight admixture of yellow- 

 blood. It very nearly resembles our common 

 brown bee. This Carniolan bee has been 

 imported into America. 



Going southeast we have the Caucasian bee, 

 so named from the mountainous region, 

 Caucasus, where it is found. It is a dark bee, 

 possibly a cross between an eastern and west- 

 ern bee. 



The Smymian bee of Asia may also be a 

 cross with an oriental race. Greece has a dark 

 bee; also Hungary and Austria, and in North 

 Norway. In fact, many other lands or dis- 

 tricts may be named, each having its own 

 peculiar bee. 



Genuine black bees may be found in Africa. 

 Mention may be made of the Tunisian bees, or 

 Funics. They are probably of oriental origin. 



In examining the bees of the different lands 

 we find the blacks predominating in Norway, 

 Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, Russia, 

 Austria, Carniola, Svntzerland, Tyrol, Greece, 

 Northern Asia, Northern Africa, etc. All 

 have a dark bee. Yellow bees we find only in 

 Syria, Southern Spain, Italy, Cyprus, and 

 other islands in the Mediterranean Sea. 



F. Benton thinks that, since some insects 

 have a way to protect themselves by assuming 

 the same color as their surroundings, it is not 

 unreasonable to suppose that bees may have 

 done the same. And, indeed, so it would 

 seem. Cyprus, on account of so much yellow 

 sand, has a very yellow appearance, and her 

 bees are the most yellow of any. The general 

 appearance of Africa is black. She has the 

 darkest bees. Germany, with its mountains 

 and forests, seems dark or brown. Her bees 

 are brown. Carniola, with her gray rocks 

 predominating, has the gray bee. 



So much about the different bees ; and now 

 for some glimpses of bee-keeping, uses of 

 honey, etc. Bee-keeping in India may be 

 traced back to the year 2000 B. C. It was 

 said there that it would rain honey in the 

 spring of the year in certain localities. To 

 these the shepherds would drive their cows. 

 Having fed on the sweetened grasses their 

 milk would be so sweet as not to need any 

 other sweetening. A baby boy received, for 

 his first food, honey from a golden spoon (it 

 might bother us fellows who have not been to 

 the Klondike, to find the golden spoons). 



Egypt was once the land of knowledge and 

 culture (Moses received his education there, 

 as will be remembered, 1500 B. C). It 

 abounded in honey-producing plants. The 

 date-palm, for one, carried on a single fruit 

 stalk as many as 12,000 nectar-yielding bios- 



